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Chichibu-Tama-Kai NP, Tokyo / Yamanashi
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The Tokyo government identifies Mount Mito and the Nippara River area as the only places in Tokyo with substantial beech forest. Mito’s beech woods also have unusually little dwarf bamboo—a feature noted as scientifically interesting.
Mount Mito’s quartz diorite formed when magma intruded underground and cooled; a scientific study dated the rock to about 7.5 million years ago. Locally, this distinctive stone is called 三頭御影, or “Mito Mikage.”
On the western peak, a post that looks like a survey marker is an old imperial-forest boundary stone. Its circle contains a roofless “宮” design; the forest passed to Tokyo in 1939.
Mount Mito has 3 summits, with the central peak highest at 1,531 m. Yet one local name-origin theory links “Mito” to 御堂 (Mido), a Buddhist hall; nearby Mido Pass keeps that alternative alive.
At the mountain’s trailhead, the local shop sells 三頭団子 (Mitō dango)—dumplings named for Mount Mito—on weekends, alongside oden. It’s a small, tasty nod to the peak above.
Mount Mito is at the headwaters of the Akikawa. From the mountain, that stream becomes the Akikawa River, the largest tributary of the Tama River.
At Mount Mito’s base, the 1-km Ōtaki-no-michi path became Tokyo’s first certified Forest Therapy Road in March 2007. It leads through the forest to the 35-metre Mito Great Falls.
